Coordination between phospholipid pools and DNA damage sensing

Abstract

Background: Both phospholipid synthesis and the detection of DNA damage are coupled to cell cycle progression, yet whether these two aspects crosstalk to each other remains unassessed. We postulate here that shortage of phospholipids, which negatively affects proliferation, may reduce the need for checkpoint activation in response to DNA damage.

Results: To test this hypothesis, we explore here the DNA Damage Response activation in response to seven different genotoxins, in three distinct cell types, and manipulate phospholipid synthesis both pharmacologically and genetically. This allows us to point at the DNA damage response kinase ATR as responsible for the coordination between phospholipid levels and DNA damage sensing.

Conclusions and significance: ATR could combine its ability to sense DNA damage and phospholipid profiles in order to finetune the response to DNA lesions depending on metabolic cues. Further, our analysis reveals the functional significance of this crosstalk to keep genome homeostasis.

Keywords: ATR; Chk1; DNA damage response; nuclear membranes; phospholipids.